Mount Nemo Hike July 2016

After yesterday’s upside down weather day (a yoyo of a day with sun, rain, clouds, pouring, sun), and seeing the clear and gorgeous summer weather predicted for today, we headed over to Mount Nemo Conservation Area for a hike.

We had only gone once before and it was great, nicer than we remembered with some pretty spots to look out at the turkey vultures and the surrounding farms and landscapes. We did a bit of the yellow trail and the whole orange trail which coincides with the Bruce Trail and makes for a more challenging and interesting hike. It was relatively short – about 3km.

The terrain is varied with roots and rocks, cliffs and some steep climbs (both up and down). Lots of birds, chipmunks, a snake (Chris saw him, I was too slow and/or blind to see him), the most turkey vultures we’ve ever seen soaring along the cliffs, even a herd of cows in the distance. 🙂

Me and the view (in my Gryffindor cap):

Chris and the view 🙂  (the sun wasn’t in a good spot..created a bit of glare/shade)

In the faaaaar away distance, you can see a herd of cows in the field , just off to the right of the two black spots in the centre of the pic.

With my awesome zoom, I was able to get a close up of the cows:

Those are some huge mushrooms!

Berries! They look so delicate…a nice pop of colour in the greenery.

Chris ran to the top of this hill – you can see him all the way up there:

No running for me (That’s probably why I’m still smiling):

The beginnings of the raspberries – these were still tiny, only about a quarter inch in size:

The chipmunk spy – I think he was more curious about us then we were of him. Cutie:

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Adventure: Albion Falls

This morning we visited Albion Falls and hiked in the surrounding area to enjoy the fall foliage. It was a cool day and partially cloudy. It took us about 20-25 minutes to drive there and there are a few parking lots in the area (free) with signs to the viewing platforms. It was very scenic and the colours of the leaves are pretty close to their peak right now. Great morning!

View from the bridge on Mountain Brow Rd – you can hear the falls from here.

View from the viewing platform on the opposite side:

You can actually see our parked car in the distance, just above the falls in the pic and to the right – ours is he white one 🙂

On the trail…

 

Ok, I nudged the yellow leaf closer to the red and green ones but the contrast was really too great to pass up. 🙂

 

There’s a short staircase (maybe 15 steps) and a dirt path down the other side of the falls:

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Thanksgiving Weekend and Family Visit

We had the troops down to visit this weekend. My sister and her two girls as well as my brother and his wife all came down from Montreal for the weekend. We had a packed schedule of fall activities planned and thankfully the weather didn’t disappoint!

Saturday we headed out to Stonehaven Farm to visit the pumpkin patch, get lost in the corn maze (life list item crossed off!!) and pick up some farm fresh pies. Our next stop was Crawford Lake to visit the reconstructed Iroquois village (one of my nieces has a school project to build a longhouse so this was a perfect stop as she got to see one up close); we also hiked the trail around the lake (1.4km, easy boardwalk path). The views were really nice. Then we returned home to carve the pumpkins and enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner. 🙂

Sunday we walked around our neighborhood, stopped at some local parks, walked a local trail then back home for lunch. In the afternoon we went over to Springridge Farm for the Harvest Festival and the kids had fun on the Fun Farm. They played with the animals, ran around in the hay bales, slid down the slides, watched the puppet show, navigated the little corn path… A fun afternoon at the farm. 🙂 We picked up some kettle corn and other goodies at the market and headed back home for supper (and Maddie’s birthday cupcakes!) and to watch Harry Potter 2 (Chamber of Secrets). We couldn’t stay awake for the whole movie – we were all pooped – so we’ll watch the second half today. 🙂

In the longhouse at Crawford Lake, listening to lore and watching a fire starting demonstration – which was pretty awesome!

On the hike around the lake:

Thanksgiving dinner!

Animals at Springridge Farm:

Maddie’s birthday ghoulie cupcakes:

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Adventure: Rattlesnake Point

This morning we headed to Rattlesnake Point, another conservation area in the Milton, ON area hoping to enjoy some early fall foliage. Although the drive there was a sight to behold with some trees sporting bright yellow, fiery orange and deep red leaves, there was still quite a bit of green and very little along the trails in the park. The next couple of weeks should be showstopping.

We followed two trails. The Vista Adventure trail (red) and the Buffalo Craig trail (yellow), a total of about 4.5 km. It was quite busy for a Sunday morning with lots of families on the trails. We also saw several people rock climbing which is an activity offered here.

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Adventure: Return to Springridge Farm

Yep, we went back. This time with my sister-in-law, her husband and their two kids. We ate lunch once we arrived, then we were off to explore the kids’ fun area where we learned that there was a new baby goat in their midst (gasp!) – could not wait.

There were tons of things to see and do and the kids (big and small) had a great time. There were lots of animals, beautiful scenery and growing crops (pumpkins are coming!), hay bales for the kids to play in, a spider web to climb, a nice lookout platform with great views over the escarpment (we actually saw the CN Tower – it was a clear day!), tractor “bikes” to roll around on, did I mention the goats?, an informative wagon ride that toured the farm and surrounding irrigation ponds, and more!  We had a great time – it was a gorgeous day, sunny and bright. We stopped by the market on the way out and home we went for a Hawaiian themed dinner party. 🙂

These chickens were hilarious – you pressed a button and they would tell a joke.

Lots of sunflowers made the view really “country cozy”.

Pony rides!

View of an irrigation pond from our wagon ride – complete with ducks and fountain:

Bee hives that house one million bees:

View of the newly built velodrome for the Pan Am games to be held in Toronto in July 2015:

More pretty sunflowers:

The pumpkins have started to grow:

The wagon we rode 🙂 Farmer Don was a great guide!

Old-fashioned tractor:

Windmill above the hay bales:

I couldn’t help myself…I hate spiders…except when they wear slippers and rollerblades. 🙂

Grasshopper!

Views from the lookout over the escarpment:

This little guy was my favourite 🙂

Oh my goodness…

Goats…

View of the Lookout platform from the bottom

More goats…

Goats goats goats

More pumpkins 🙂 And more sunflowers.

The sunflowers were so tall! Much taller than me!

The entrance to the maze (more of a path but it was cute)

Chloe leading me through the maze

Turkey!

Peacock!

Bunnies are so cute

They live in Bunnyville

Chris, the goat whisperer 🙂

A farm wouldn’t be complete without a rooster. 🙂

Farmer Chloe

Farmer Zach

Being silly during our Hawaii-themed dinner 🙂

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Adventure: Webster’s Falls, Tews Falls and Dundas Peak

This morning we headed out to the Spencer Gorge conservation area in Hamilton on a recommendation from a friend. We still can’t believe how lucky we are to live so close to so many amazing scenic places – this was just a 25 drive away!

Our plan was to hike from Webster’s Falls, to Tews Falls, to Dundas Peak and back. It’s about 5.2km total and we did it under 2 hours. Most of the trail is hard-packed dirt and there are some stairs, some bridges, some areas with a pretty steep drop with no railings but it was totally doable. It was a beautiful sunny morning and we figured by heading out in the morning, we’d beat most of the afternoon heat. I brought this map with us but we didn’t really need it as everything was clearly marked.

We parked at the parking lot near Webster’s Falls on Fallsview Road ($10 parking fee) and at 10am it was mostly empty. We explored the area surrounding the falls; the story says that the area was developed to resemble the English countryside and we were completely enchanted.

View from the lookout closest to the parking lot. We could hear the roar of the falls as we approached.

We walked down to the cobblestone bridge you see in the distance. You can see people on the bridge as well as at another lookout point just to the left of where the waterfall goes over the edge:

Coming up to the cobblestone bridge:

Taken from the cobblestone bridge facing away from the falls:

Taken from the lookout point right where the falls go over:

So charming 🙂

 

Coming up to the other bridge – beautiful 🙂

View from that bridge up the creek:

From here we followed the trail up towards Tews Falls (about 20 minutes) – the trail is clearly marked.

These are Tews Falls – it’s 9m wide so much narrower than Webster’s but a lot taller – just a few metres shorter than Niagara Falls.

We continued on to Dundas Peak and got to enjoy some great views from up there:

A train!

Raspberries 🙂

There were various bridges…

Some steep drops…

which provided some cool tree root photos opportunities…

Some stairways…

Some scenic paths…

Maps along the way to tell you where you were…

On that last map, we noticed that there was a dam (Christie Dam) west of Webster’s Falls (about 2.8km from Webster’s Falls to the dam) so that will likely be our next hike.

It was a great morning!

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Family Visit: Farm and Aquarium

My sister Sue and her girls arrived on Thursday night. After picking up some groceries we got back home and watched Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (first movie) in preparation for the party on Saturday. But before then, we had a full day on Friday.

In the morning we headed out to Andrew’s Scenic Acres, a local farm in Milton, Ontario. It was my first time going and we had an amazing time. We spent some time picking raspberries and blueberries, enough to fill 4 small baskets, then did some shopping in the shop (picked up fresh apple pie, butter tarts and homemade jams). We had hot dogs at the BBQ area and the girls played in the small playground and fed the goats. Before we headed to our next stop, we enjoyed a yummy fruit ice cream cone. A perfect summer day:

After swinging by home to drop off our purchases, we headed to the train station to head downtown to Ripley’s Aquarium. Since we got there at around 6pm, there was no line to speak of (they closed at 11pm). I was so impressed with everything here  from the gorgeous displays to the interactive activities to the amazing Dangerous Lagoon. A must-see for anyone in the area – fabulous.

My favourite things were the jelly fish, the anemones and the Dangerous Lagoon – it was so freaky to be on the slow-moving walkway going through a tunnel inside the tank and seeing sharks swimming above us. Awesome!!!

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Exploring: Cheltenham Badlands

I was Googling for some nice Ontario Fall drives so we could go out and enjoy some of the leaves changing colours and came across this peculiar place about a half hour north of where we live called the Cheltenham Badlands. It was a gorgeous day so we decided to head out and see what badlands looked like in Ontario. Well boy, were we pleasantly surprised and amazed. What a cool place! It was a beautiful day, warm (got up to 18 degrees C, sunny), the leaves were just gorgeous – a perfect fall day! We drove north on Mississauga road, right on Old Baseline Road, pass Creditview and you’re there!

We parked a little ways back and as we approached, this was our first glance at them - how cool is that!?

Doesn't this look like the Dead Scar in World of Warcraft? Right here in our own Ontario backyard!

Walking back to where we parked the car...enjoying the fall leaves.

This is why I love the Fall in Canada... 🙂

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